Women Lawyers and Governance in the Progressive Era

As a reform movement and an academic discipline, American public administrationgenerally coalesced during the Progressive era (1890-1920). Progressive reforms for the public sector seeped deeply into the DNA of the field, including separation of civil servants from politics, reliance on expertise, fewer elected offices, and public reporting of agency activities. However, not all of the governmental reforms proposed during this era were enacted. One of the most controversial and least known was Theodore Roosevelt’s proposal in 1912 that the voters be able to have a referendum on major court decisions, permitting them to overturn those decisions. His idea was only enacted in Colorado, where it remained on the books until 1921. This article reviews the original concept and its history in Colorado.

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MUNICIPAL ACCOUNTING REFORM c. 1900: OHIO'S PROGRESSIVE ACCOUNTANTS

Accounting Historians Journal ◽

10.2308/0148-4184.14.1.83 ◽

1987 ◽

Vol 14 (1) ◽

pp. 83-94 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Richard K. Fleischman ◽

R. Penny Marquette

Keyword(s):

Progressive Era ◽

Cost Accounting ◽

Leadership Roles ◽

Accounting Systems

Despite the fact that municipal accounting was a significant and permanent reform of the Progressive era, historians have failed to accord accountants proper credit for their leadership roles. Ohio was an important Progressive state and is particularly suited to an investigation of the contribution made by accountants. Ohio was the first state to require uniform municipal accounting and one of the first to inaugurate budgeting. Municipal research bureaus in major Ohio cities were among the most dynamic in the nation, inspiring important steps forward in cost accounting, budgeting, and the installation of accounting systems. Progressive municipal administrations came to depend increasingly on expert accountants to devise new systems and to audit the results.

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THE USE OF ACCOUNTING INFORMATION IN GOVERNMENTAL REGULATION AND PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION: THE IMPACT OF JOHN R. COMMONS AND EARLY INSTITUTIONAL ECONOMISTS

Accounting Historians Journal ◽

10.2308/0148-4184.22.1.1 ◽

1995 ◽

Vol 22 (1) ◽

pp. 1-33 ◽

Cited By ~ 18

Author(s):

Mark A. Covaleski ◽

Mark W. Dirsmith ◽

Sajay Samuel

Keyword(s):

Public Administration ◽

Progressive Era ◽

Political Process ◽

Accounting Information ◽

Turn Of The Century ◽

Governmental Regulation ◽

Calculative Practices ◽

The Impact ◽

Return Regulation ◽

Intrinsic Measure

This paper examines the socio-political process by which an ensemble of such calculative practices and techniques as accounting came to be developed, adopted, and justified within turn-of-the-century public administration. We are particularly concerned with examining the influence of John R. Commons and other early institutional economists during this Progressive era. Using primary and secondary archival materials, our purpose is to make three main contributions to the literature. First, the paper explores Commons' contribution to the debates over “value” which seems to be somewhat unique in that he explicitly recognized that there exists no unproblematic, intrinsic measure of value, but rather that it must be socially constituted as “reasonable” with reference to common law. To illustrate this point, this paper explores Commons' role in the historical development and implementation of rate of return regulation for utilities. Second, the paper describes the contradictory role accounting played during this period in ostensibly fostering administrative objectivity while accommodating a more pragmatic rhetoric of “realpolitik” in its development and deployment. The third contribution is to establish a linkage between current work in economics and accounting concerned with utility regulation and the debates of ninety years ago, noting that Commons' contribution has not been fully explored or recognized within the accounting literature.

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GOVERNMENT/BUSINESS SYNERGY: EARLY AMERICAN INNOVATIONS IN BUDGETING AND COST ACCOUNTING

Accounting Historians Journal ◽

10.2308/0148-4184.19.2.123 ◽

1992 ◽

Vol 19 (2) ◽

pp. 123-145 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

R. Penny Marquette ◽

Richard K. Fleischman

Keyword(s):

Twentieth Century ◽

Progressive Era ◽

Cost Accounting ◽

American Government ◽

Significant Cost ◽

Industrial Environment ◽

Early American ◽

Planning And Control ◽

And Control ◽

Governmental Budgeting

This paper examines certain interactions between American government and business which resulted in important innovations in the areas of budgeting and cost accounting early in the twentieth century. The evidence suggests that budgeting methods were initially developed by municipal reformers of the Progressive era and were subsequently adapted by business for planning and control purposes. In like fashion, standard costing and variance analysis were significant cost accounting techniques born to an industrial environment which came to contribute markedly to a continuing improvement of governmental budgeting procedures.

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James’s Animal Encounters

10.1093/oso/9780190676537.003.0002 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Benjamin Bateman

Keyword(s):

Progressive Era ◽

Environmental Impacts ◽

War Zone ◽

Animal Behaviors

Henry James’s story “The Beast in the Jungle” is read as a response to the “nature fakers” controversy of the Progressive era. As Teddy Roosevelt and others insisted that nature is a war zone in which animals clash violently, James’s tale probes less aggressive animal behaviors and suggests that social Darwinist ideologies encourage the competitive practices they claim to merely describe. Instructing John Marcher in the pleasures to be found in making himself available to a beast he has been trained to fear, May Bartram functions as an early feminist ecologist who deploys a critique of species exceptionalism and its environmental impacts to undermine patriarchal ambition and to promote a vulnerable version of survival.

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The Oklahoma State Constitution

10.1093/oso/9780197514818.001.0001 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Danny M. Adkison ◽

Lisa McNair Palmer

Keyword(s):

Progressive Era ◽

Direct Democracy ◽

The United States ◽

Constitutional Development ◽

Legal Decisions ◽

United States Today ◽

William Jennings Bryan ◽

Constitutional Evolution ◽

State Constitutional Law ◽

Broad Understanding

In 1907, William Jennings Bryan described the proposed constitution for Oklahoma as “the best constitution in the United States today.” An enduring characteristic of Oklahoma’s constitution has been its faith in direct democracy and its root in Progressive Era politics. This book traces the historical formation and constitutional development of the state of Oklahoma. It provides commentary and analysis on the intent, politics, social and economic pressures, and the legal decisions that shaped and enhanced the Oklahoma constitution since it was adopted in 1907. The text gives a broad understanding of state constitutional law within the context of Oklahoma’s constitutional evolution.

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